Maryland Successfully Defends State Building Emissions Standards

Maryland’s energy performance standards mandating net-zero emissions in buildings were upheld in court after a judge rejected arguments from housing industry groups claiming they were preempted by federal law.

The challenged Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) don’t refer to or have an impermissible connection with the energy use or energy efficiency of products covered by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the US District Court for the District of Maryland said Tuesday.

The standards set greenhouse gas emissions targets for certain state-owned, commercial, and multifamily residential buildings in the state. They required buildings to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.

Utilities and a cluster of construction and real estate groups challenged the standards in January 2025, claiming such requirements were preempted by EPCA. That law gives the Energy Department the exclusive authority to regulate energy efficiency standards for certain consumer and industrial appliances.

Boardman found the challenged standards “impose declining greenhouse gas emissions benchmarks on buildings across Maryland.”

“These emissions requirements do not change depending on the energy use or energy efficiency of covered products in those buildings,” so preemption doesn’t apply, she said.

The case was dismissed with prejudice because “there are no facts the plaintiffs can allege to establish that EPCA preempts the BEPS,” the judge said.

EPCA has been invoked by industry groups in challenges across the country from New York to Colorado seeking to get rid of local natural gas restrictions in new construction.

Judges in DC and Maryland district courts ruled at the end of March that the ordinances being litigated before them were not preempted. Tuesday’s opinion serves as the third example of that conclusion within a short period of time.

The Trump administration on March 31 sued a New Jersey township for banning natural gas infrastructure in new buildings through a local ordinance, also arguing an EPCA preemption. The complaint also pointed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case where the California Restaurant Association successfully overturned Berkeley’s natural gas ban.

Environmental groups praised Tuesday’s decision.

“Maryland’s Building Energy Performance Standards are critical to helping address the 16% of climate pollution that comes from Maryland’s buildings,” Anne Havemann, deputy director and general counsel at the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said in a statement.

“While fossil fuel lobbyists and their allies have sought to weaken these standards, we applaud today’s decision that ensures Maryland has the right to demand cleaner air and better performance from some of the biggest sources of pollution in our state,” she said.

The plaintiffs are represented by Baker Botts LLP. The secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment is represented by the state attorney general’s office.

The case is Md. Bldg. Indus. Assoc. Inc. v. McIlwain, D. Md., No. 8:25-cv-00113, 3/31/26.